Food Culture in Germany

i
Food Culture in
Germany
Courtesy of Golden Section Graphics/Katharina Erfurth.
ii
iii
Food Culture in
Germany
URSULA HEINZELMANN
Food Culture around the World
Ken Albala, Series Editor
GREENWOOD PRESS
Westport, Connecticut • London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Heinzelmann, Ursula.

Food culture in Germany / Ursula Heinzelmann.

p. cm. — (Food culture around the world, ISSN 1545–2638)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978–0–313–34494–7 (alk. paper)

1. Cookery, German. 2. Food habits—Germany. I. Title.

TX721.H453 2008

641.30943—dc22 2008007892
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.

Copyright © 2008 by Ursula Heinzelmann
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be

reproduced, by any process or technique, without the

express written consent of the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2008007892

ISBN: 978–0–313–34494–7
ISSN: 1545–2638
First published in 2008
Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.

www.greenwood.com
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this book complies with the
Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National

Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Illustrations by Gottfried Müller
The publisher has done its best to make sure the instructions and/or recipes in this book
are correct. However, users should apply judgment and experience when preparing reci
-
pes, especially parents and teachers working with young people. The publisher accepts no
responsibility for the outcome of any recipe included in this volume.
iv
v
Contents

Series Foreword by Ken Albala vii
Preface ix
Introduction xi
Timeline xv
1.
Historical Overview 1
2.
Major Foods and Ingredients 37
3.
Cooking 88
4.
Typical Meals 101
5.
Eating Out 116
6.
Special Occasions 131
7.
Diet and Health 156
Glossary 167
Resource Guide 179
Selected Bibliography 183
Index 187
vii
Series Foreword
The appearance of the Food Culture around the World series marks a de-
finitive stage in the maturation of Food Studies as a discipline to reach a
wider audience of students, general readers, and foodies alike. In compre
-
hensive interdisciplinary reference volumes, each on the food culture of a
country or region for which information is most in demand, a remarkable

team of experts from around the world offers a deeper understanding and
appreciation of the role of food in shaping human culture for a whole
new generation. I am honored to have been associated with this project
as series editor.
Each volume follows a series format, with a chronology of food-related
dates and narrative chapters entitled Introduction, Historical Overview,
Major Foods and Ingredients, Cooking, Typical Meals, Eating Out, Spe
-
cial Occasions, and Diet and Health. (In special cases, these topics are
covered by region.) Each also includes a glossary, bibliography, resource
guide, and illustrations.
Finding or growing food has of course been the major preoccupation of
our species throughout history, but how various peoples around the world
learn to exploit their natural resources, come to esteem or shun specific
foods and develop unique cuisines reveals much more about what it is
to be human. There is perhaps no better way to understand a culture, its
values, preoccupations and fears, than by examining its attitudes toward
food. Food provides the daily sustenance around which families and com
-
munities bond. It provides the material basis for rituals through which
viii Series Foreword
people celebrate the passage of life stages and their connection to divin-
ity. Food preferences also serve to separate individuals and groups from
each other, and as one of the most powerful factors in the construction of
identity, we physically, emotionally and spiritually become what we eat.
By studying the foodways of people different from ourselves we also
grow to understand and tolerate the rich diversity of practices around the
world. What seems strange or frightening among other people becomes
perfectly rational when set in context. It is my hope that readers will gain
from these volumes not only an aesthetic appreciation for the glories of

the many culinary traditions described, but also ultimately a more pro
-
found respect for the peoples who devised them. Whether it is eating New
Year’s dumplings in China, folding tamales with friends in Mexico, or
going out to a famous Michelin-starred restaurant in France, understand
-
ing these food traditions helps us to understand the people themselves.
As globalization proceeds apace in the twenty-first century it is also
more important than ever to preserve unique local and regional traditions.
In many cases these books describe ways of eating that have already begun
to disappear or have been seriously transformed by modernity. To know
how and why these losses occur today also enables us to decide what tradi
-
tions, whether from our own heritage or that of others, we wish to keep
alive. These books are thus not only about the food and culture of peoples
around the world, but also about ourselves and who we hope to be.
Ken Albala
University of the Pacific
ix
Preface
I have been cooking and baking since before I could read and write.
I was born in Berlin in 1963 and absorbed a wide array of food influences
from family and friends. Apprenticing as a chef, later taking on a restau
-
rant on Lake Constance, then training as a sommelier in Heidelberg and
establishing a French cheese shop back in Berlin all helped me develop
a deep understanding of the foodways of Germany and finally resulted
in my switch to food journalism, writing, and history. The familiar ways
at home were put into perspective by trips abroad, first with my parents
and brothers to France and Scandinavia, then on my own to the North

American East Coast. More recently, I have continued my culinary ex
-
plorations with trips to England as well as the North American West
Coast, India, Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand. In every corner of
the world, food has always been my link to people, to understand their
ways and their lives. During that time, German food has changed mark
-
edly, and its perception abroad gradually followed suit.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am very grateful to Ken Albala, editor for the Greenwood Press Food
Culture around the World Series, as well as Wendi Schnaufer, senior edi
-
tor at Greenwood Press, for offering me this opportunity to paint a picture
of contemporary German food culture. This book would not have been
written without the background of the Oxford Symposium on Food and
x Preface
Cookery, to which I was first introduced by Harlan Walker in 2003 and
which I have been attending ever since. It has developed into my intellec
-
tual home of gastronomy. Here I met Barbara Ketcham Wheaton (“never
confuse what is mentioned in cookbooks with what people cook and eat
in reality!”), Darra Goldstein (who at our first meeting trusted me enough
to commission articles for
Gastronomica magazine), William Rubel (who
has been the most inspiring food-friend ever since), Susan Rossi-Wilcox
(a soulmate who sadly seems to have disappeared from my life), and many
others whom I would like to thank for their friendship and assistance.
My friend Ebba Drolshagen has proved to be the perfect Internet scout,
often coming up with exactly the right bit of information at the right time.
Richard Hosking not only made me aware of the exceptional quality of

Königsberg marzipan but also very patiently corrected my English text. In
the last stage of writing, Sabrina Small came along like a foodwriter’s deus
ex machina and provided invaluable information. She helped to make the
final manuscript more friendly to English speakers. I am deeply indebted
to all of them, but all errors in the finished book are entirely mine.
Gottfried Müller obligingly rose to the challenge to illustrate, in his
usual precise way, some less well-known aspects of German food culture.
Jan Schwochow and Katharina Erfurth from Golden Section Graphics in
Berlin expertly managed to put a seemingly impossible wealth of informa
-
tion onto the small map of Germany. I very much appreciate their help.
However, without three people in particular, I would have never been
able to write this book: Birgit Biessmann not only taught me English and
logical thinking at school but has become a dear friend and most inspiring
critic. Stuart Pigott, my London-born husband, continues to open new
doors I did not even know existed inside and around me. And finally my
mother, first provider of food, love, and unwavering loyalty—
danke.
xi
Introduction
Food culture in Germany—where should one start? With the herrings,
sausages, sauerkraut, and Black Forest cherry gâteau clichés? Or, at the
other extreme, with the widely consumed fast food from countless chains,
as ubiquitous in Germany as in the rest of the Western world? For this
country east of France, west of Poland, north of Switzerland, and south
of Denmark, the question of national culinary identity seems particularly
difficult to answer.
Food culture has been described as the link between agriculture and
nutrition. Once primarily defined by geography and climate, over the ages
it has been shaped by language, religion, culture, and economics, thus

revealing cultural and social differences. Since the onset of industrializa
-
tion, with the introduction of modern food technology and transportation
(often described by the somewhat vague term “globalization”), food can
seem utterly detached from any particular country or region. However,
the notion of home strongly links it to particular places, and this is par
-
ticularly clear in the case of Germany.
After World War II, several generations of Germans (and others) were
trying to look in only one direction: the future. Some tried to forget what
seemed unbearable (the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes); others were
simply tired of hearing the same stories about war, hunger, and hardships
again and again. Even postwar generations became fed up with the two
inevitable comments that came up as soon as one revealed one’s nation
-
ality abroad: sauerkraut and Adolf Hitler. Why couldn’t one be from a
“normal” country with food everybody adored, like France?
xii Introduction
But gradually, Germans have learned to live with and accept their his-
tory, even the most sour and unpalatable bits of it. Normality today—the
normality Germans craved so much in postwar times—does not mean
suppressing what is bitter or uncomfortable, quite the opposite. Germany
as a nation has grown up, and Germans are now able to explore and ac
-
knowledge their cultural identity, the soil on which they live, the food that
grows and is produced around them. For some years now, traditional dishes
have been rediscovered and revived. Until recently they had seemed to
be slowly transforming into exhibits in a food museum, produced for tour
-
ists, while everyday people in Hamburg and Berlin, Munich and Cologne

ate mozzarella and pizza,
Döner Kebab, and poularde de Bresse. A return
to regionality has occurred, counteracting the effects of globalization and
industrialization. Because of this and a host of new culinary traditions,
writing about food culture in Germany today, including sauerkraut, is a
very exciting task.
Germany—on a geohistorical level—is a land in the middle of the Eu
-
ropean continent, situated between Slavs and Romans, cold and heat, sea
and mountains. In the course of history it has been enormously influenced
from all sides—one could even say it is
composed of those influences. Thus,
to understand the past, which forms the background of all this meeting,
joining, melting, is to understand the reasons for what and how people in
Germany eat today.
Unlike, for instance, its neighbor France, Germany has no single na
-
tional, overarching haute cuisine, not even a national dish like Brazil’s
feijoada. Although Germany is not a particularly large country (in terms of
land area, it is slightly smaller than Montana, and its population is between
a quarter and a third of that of the United States), its culture is complex. In
addition to geographic, climatic, and religious reasons, this is mainly due
to migrations throughout history, with new peoples bringing their foods
and foodways with them, as well as the fact that until the declaration of
the German empire in 1871, Germany was composed of countless small
individual kingdoms, fiefdoms, and free cities. This made for a variety of
regional cuisines.
When industrialization reached Germany around 1850 (compared with
almost a century earlier in England), the effects were far-reaching. In the
process, agrarian Germany was quickly and thoroughly urbanized and

came to rely more and more on “modern” food industries. As nineteenth-
century industrialization gave way to twentieth- and twenty-first-century
globalization, German food culture shifted once more to contend with
worldwide food trends. Despite heated debates about the rights and wrongs
of fast food versus “real” food, world cuisine versus “home-style” regional
Introduction xiii
cooking, food scares, and one of the highest standards of living worldwide,
culinary Germany today seems to have returned to a more balanced nor
-
mality. This is also reflected in the new turn its wine industry has taken,
uplifted by the fresh energy of a young generation of winegrowers from
previously overlooked regions.
Because this book is about food culture
in Germany, German emigrants
can only be briefly mentioned. Silesian Lutherans, for instance, brought
poppy seed dishes to South Australia in the 1840s, just as North Ameri
-
can beer brewing owes a lot to its German roots—think of Budweiser,
brewed by the Anheuser family. Pennsylvania Dutch (“Dutch” is derived
from deutsch, that is, German, not from the Netherlands) cuisine reflects
the historic cooking styles of the regions along the Rhine. It has been said
that the only marked non-British early influence on white American cui
-
sine was German. More than 50 German-language cookbooks appeared
in the United States between the middle of the nineteenth century and
World War I, one of the most important undoubtedly being the
Practical
Cookbook by Henriette Davidis.
1
Especially in New York City, where German immigrants had settled be-

ginning in the early days when it was still called New Amsterdam, influxes
of German migration have shaped American cuisine. The biggest wave of
German immigrants arrived in the 1840s and 1850s. Some of them were
Jews, and their food culture later mixed with that of the eastern European
Jews who arrived in the 1880s. But the cultures had mixed before. Just as
Yiddish, the Ashkenazi-Jewish lingua franca (note that Ashkenazi means
“German” in Hebrew), originated as a thirteenth-century southern Ger
-
man dialect and took on its present form in eastern Europe, where many
Jews from the Rhine and Elbe regions had fled, Ashkenazi-Jewish cuisine
mixed German and eastern European elements and adapted them to the
dietary laws of the kashruth.
2
This particular mix of German, Jewish, and Yiddish cultures resulted
in what today has come to be regarded as archetypical New York fare:
pastrami, chopped liver and lox, hot dogs, pumpernickel, corned beef,
and sour dill pickles. Although the -
essen in delicatessen does not seem
to derive from the German verb
essen (to eat), as it etymologically origi-
nated in the French
délicat/délicatesse (delicate, exquisite/delicacy), the
New York shops under that name were originally German. Apart from
fine groceries, they offered all kinds of take-out food and often included a
restaurant. Delicatessen came to stand above all for beef-based products,
in contrast to dairy- and fish-centered “appetizer” shops and restaurants.
The importance of these roots for wider white American food culture can
hardly be overstated.
For Germans born after World War II, to walk into any of these
New York delis is to discover a food world that is at once familiar—the

salted “Dutch” herring, pickles, smoked fish, rye bread, and challah—
and unfamiliar—the matzo ball soup, knishes, gefilte fish, bialys, and
rugaluch. It forms a facet of German food culture that today can almost
exclusively be experienced on the North American continent, as it is
nearly imperceptible in Germany itself. Some of it, like bagels with
cream cheese and lox, has been “re-imported” to contemporary Ger
-
many as typical American food (although hardly anybody here knows
the true salted lox, with which this combination makes real sense; in
-
stead, smoked salmon is used). A lot has survived on American ground
precisely because it came to be seen as Jewish, as opposed to German.
Drawing on a wide range of sources as well as my 45 years of hands-on
experience as a Berlin-born foodie,
Food Culture in Germany attempts to
present Germany’s food culture in all its countless variations. It hopes to
make sense of how German food is linked to New York delis, as well as
incorporating French, Italian, Turkish, Russian, and many other influ
-
ences. Despite this fracturing, I believe German food firmly stands its own
ground. There is more than herring, sauerkraut, and fast food to modern
German cuisine—
guten Appetit!
notes
1. The following reprint of this cookbook going back to 1879 includes a very
good introduction on the subject and offers a fascinating insight into the food
habits of one of America’s largest immigrant groups as well as an English-German
list of kitchen-related vocabulary of the time: Henriette Davidis, Pickled Her-
ring and Pumpkin Pie: A Nineteenth-Century Cookbook for German Immigrants to
America (1904; rpt., Madison, WI: Max Kade Institute, 2003).

2. For an introduction to the subject as well as a wealth of recipes, see Claudia
Roden, The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand and Vilna to the Pres-
ent Day (London: Penguin, 1999).
xiv Introduction
xv
timeline
Prehistory Skulls are used as communal drinking vessels in the ear-
(before liest Paleolithic period.
10,000
b
.
c
.)
Fireplaces are used in caves or simple tents.
The gathering of mushrooms, berries, nuts, roots, and plants
is a common way of finding food.
Hunting becomes a means of finding food.
Mesolithic Advances in fishing help to increase the variety of hu-
period mans’ diet.
(c. 10,000–
Boiling food becomes an alternative to roasting.

c. 5,000
b
.
c
.)
Neolithic The first settlements with permanent dwellings are estab-
period lished.
(c. 5,000–

The cultivation of plants is established in addition to gather-

c. 3,000
b
.
c
.)
ing; two of the main crops are Einkorn and Emmer.

Simple flat breads baked in subterranean dome-shaped ovens
become an alternative to gruel.
The domestication of pigs, cattle, goats, and sheep begins.
c. 3,000– Copper and bronze are worked into weapons and tools.
c. 750
b
.
c
.
from The use of iron weapons and tools make for higher crop
c. 750
b
.
c
. yields.
Sourdough is first used for bread.
xvi Timeline
Smoking meat is a widespread method of preservation.
People begin keeping chicken, geese, and ducks.
Agriculture expands as people begin cultivating pears, plums,
and sweet cherries.

Dairy farming is introduced.
A ruling class forms as they create separate settlements for
themselves.
51
b
.
c
. Roman troops under Julius Caesar advance up to the Rhine,
bringing a monetary system, writing system, and state system
to the southwest of modern Germany. The Romans also in-
troduce viticulture.
c. 100
a
.
d
. Roman writer Tacitus describes Germanic tribes in his Ger-
mania as wild barbarians surviving on unhung fresh game, a
thin, ale-like fermented beverage, and curdled milk.
371 Roman poet Ausonius first describes viticulture in the Mo-
selle Valley in his poem Mosella.
476 Germanic troops invade Rome; cultures mingle through com-
plex migrations all across Europe following the collapse of the
Roman Empire.
736 Benedictine missionary Boniface prohibits the eating of
horsemeat.
787 Charlemagne issues the Capitulare de Villis, an inventory and
set of rules for the management of his estates, emphasizing
hunting, mostly a royal privilege, and agriculture, leading to
a general diet based more on grains and vegetables.
9th century The three-field system slowly spreads in Germany; summer

and winter grains are rotated with root crops and fallow, mak-
ing for higher crop yields. This remains the norm until it is
given up in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in favor
of clover and potato cultivation.
817 The first record of viticulture in the Rheingau region for a
hillside that today belongs to the Schloß Johannisberg estate.
843 Charlemagne’s kingdom is split in three parts that correspond
roughly to modern Germany, France, and, in the center,
Alsace/Lorraine.
With the diminishing influence of the Holy Roman Emperor
over the following centuries, a multitude of kingdoms, fief-
doms, and free cities become ever stronger.
Expansion and Christianization progress eastward.
Timeline xvii
956 Lüneburg is officially recognized for its saltworks (followed by
Reichenhall in 1163 and Halle in 1177).
1040 The monastery of Weihenstephan near Munich receives
brewing rights.
11th century Hops begin to be used for beer production.
Brewing slowly moves out of individual homes to become an
industry organized in guilds.
1178
The word Weihnachten, in the form wihe nacht (Christmas), is
first used.
1240 The first recorded trade fair in Frankfurt am Main takes
place.
1272 The bakers’ guild in Berlin is founded, which requires a bak-
ing test for potential members.
Baked goods in Berlin begin selling at a fixed price.
1329 The first recorded mention of Christstollen (Christmas yeast

cake) is found in Naumburg/Saale near Leipzig.
1341 The first recorded carnival parade in Cologne, which goes
back to Saturnalia in connection with the worship of a late
Roman goddess of shipping and fertility, takes place.
1348 The first German university is founded in Prague, beginning
the emergence of educated classes as a third power besides
church and state.
1348–49 The Plague (Black Death) reduces the European population
by a third.
c. 1350
The oldest German cookbook, Daz buch von guter spise (The
Book of Good Food) is thought to have originated during this
time.
There is a rising awareness of regional differences in food.
1356 Hanse trade organization founded by northern German

cities as the counterpart to the southern German trade
companies.
15th century The patrician family Fugger of Augsburg builds elaborate
trade systems with the South and Orient through Venetian
and Arab traders.
Fuggers becomes the most important European banker and
imports spices from East India by sea.
1435 The Riesling grape is recorded for the first time at Rüs-
selsheim, near the eastern end of the Rheingau region.
xviii Timeline
1437 After devastating frosts, viticulture in Germany recedes
south, which until then had been common as far north as
East Prussia.
1485 The first printed German cookbook, the Kuchen maysterey, is

published in Nuremberg.
1516 The German Reinheitsgebot (purity law) for beer originates
in a Bavarian law only allowing Hopfen (hops), Gerstenmalz
(barley malt), and Wasser (water) in beer production.
1517 Theologian Martin Luther’s declaration of Protestant theses
against the Catholic church provokes division of faiths and
migrations across Europe, eventually leading to the Thirty
Years’ War (1618–48), furthering the separation of Austria
from Germany, and accentuating food differences between
north and south.
1539 As a result of a ban on brewing beer during the summer be-
cause of fire risk, beer gardens around Munich become popu-
lar as brewers start to sell a special beer brewed in March
directly from their premises.
The first Christmas tree in Strasbourg cathedral is recorded.
1573 The first German sugar refinery is established in Augsburg.
16th century Lemons, cauliflower, savoy cabbage, and salad are introduced
from Italy.
Buckwheat is introduced from Russia, possibly linked to the
important cattle imports coming from there.
In aristocratic circles, influences from Polish, Bohemian, and
Turkish cuisine join those from Italy and Spain.
1580 French philosopher and politician Michel de Montaigne
passes through Lindau on Lake Constance and remarks fa-
vorably on the cooking.
Dutch weavers settle in the Spreewald area southeast of Ber-
lin and start cultivating cucumbers.
1581 Marx Rumpolt publishes what is probably the first German
potato recipe in his Ein New Kochbuch, the first printed guide
for professional cooks, but the new crop catches on very

slowly.
1609 The first regular weekly newspapers appear in Augsburg and
Strasbourg.
1679 The first German coffeehouse opens in Hamburg and al-
though very expensive, coffee proves highly popular among
all classes.
Timeline xix
1685 Persecuted French Huguenots are welcomed in Prussian Ber-
lin following the abolition of Edict of Nantes.
1688 The first monovarietal Riesling vineyard is recorded in Ger-
many, the Löhrer Berg in the Nahe region, which belonged
to the bishop of Mainz at the time.
1710 King August the Strong of Saxony sets up porcelain manufac-
ture in Meißen.
1720 Prussian King Frederick William I introduces potato culti
-
vation in Brandenburg. Later on his son Frederick II (the
Great) heavily promotes the same.
1726 The first mention of the vineyard site on a German wine
label (Marcobrunn of Erbach/Rheingau) is recorded.
1751 A huge wine barrel is built in Heidelberg, containing about
58,653 gallons.
1755 The last wild Wisent (local bison) is shot in East Prussia.
1770 The first coffee surrogate is produced from roasted chicory
root.
1771–72 Famines caused by bad grain harvests make for the rapid
spread of potato cultivation, first as poor person’s food and
animal feed, but soon also leading to the production of inex
-
pensive spirits.

1775 At Schloß Johannisberg/Rheingau, final proof is procured
that better-quality wine results from late picking, ending long
disputes on this matter.
1797 Soup kitchens serving Rumford soup are set up in Munich
for poor people. By 1800 there are also soup kitchens in
Berlin.
from 1803 on Under Napoleonic influence, the widespread secularization
of church property begins. The property is split up among
German rulers as compensation for the losses caused by the
French annexations on left side of the Rhine. This, in tan
-
dem with the geographic reshuffling after Napoleon’s defeat
in Russia, leads to the end of extreme territorial fragmenta-
tion in Germany.
from 1804 on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe regularly has his friend Carl
Friedrich Zelter, the composer and founder of the Berlin
Choral Academy, send him bushels of Teltow turnips in
Weimar.
1806–13 The Continental System (Napoleon’s trade embargo against
England), indirectly leads to the invention of mock turtle
xx Timeline
soup in German Lower Saxony, where a rich peasant’s cook
is said to replace the embargoed turtle meat with a calf’s head
so as to serve her master’s favorite dish.
1810 The first freedom of trade is decreed and a general trade tax
is introduced in Prussia, allowing new structures and free ex-
change between cities and countryside.
The first Oktoberfest, or Wiesn, takes place in Munich on the
occasion of the Bavarian crown prince marrying Princess
Therese. The celebration includes a horserace on the There-

sienwiese.
1811 Almost all Rheingau vineyards are picked late; the wines of
this
Jahrhundertjahrgang (vintage of the century, also called
Kometenwein) make for a quantum leap in German wines’ in-
ternational reputation.
1812 Jewish emancipation declared by Prussian decree.
1815 Congress of Vienna following defeat of Napoleon leads to
a Germany composed more or less of the Länder (states) of
today (although Silesia and East and West Prussia today are
part of the Czech Republic and Poland, respectively, whereas
the Saar region back then belonged to France).
1818 Berlin’s first Lese-Conditorei (literally, reading pastry shop,
where patrons could read newspapers while having coffee and
cake) opens.
1822 Karl Friedrich von Rumohr’s
Geist der Kochkunst (The Es-
sence of Cookery) is published.
1823 First
Rosenmontag (literally, Rose Monday, the Monday be-
fore Ash Wednesday) parade takes place in Cologne.
1827 Karl Baedeker establishes a publishing house for travel
books.
1833 Berlin café Kranzler offers the city’s first smoking room.
1839 The first German long-distance railway (Dresden to Leipzig)
opens; middle classes increasingly take to traveling by rail.
First German chocolate factory opens in Cologne.
1843 First German jam factory opens in Dresden.
1845 First edition of Henriette Davidis’s hugely popular Praktisches
Kochbuch (Practical cookbook) is published; thereafter, nu-

merous new editions appear until 1963.
1848 General social unrest leads to a revolution and the abolition
of all feudal laws.
Timeline xxi
1851 First Christmas trees arrive by railway in Berlin.
1860 Gas for lighting and cooking arrives in German households
(running water does not become widely available until the
beginning of the twentieth century).
1862 Kempinski Weinstube opens on Friedrichstraße in Berlin.
1864 The founding of Schrebergärten-Vereine (association of allot-
ments/community garden owners) in Leipzig.
The first commercial production of Liebig’s meat extract
appears.
1871 Foundation of German Empire with the capital in Berlin and
Prussian King William I as emperor follows victory in the
Franco-German war.
Germany has 41 million inhabitants (in 1841, 33 million, in
1933, 66 million).
State decree allows free movement and settlement for all
German citizens, making possible huge migrations following
new industries, mainly toward the west and south.
1872 Krebspest, a crayfish disease, destroys all German freshwater
crayfish.
1874 First refrigeration machine developed by Carl von Linde;
combined with rapidly expanding railway system, this leads
to wider food distribution.
1879 First state legislation and inspections introduced for milk,
beer, and meat.
First German market hall opens in Frankfurt am Main.
1887 The general pasteurization of milk is introduced.

1888 William II (“Kaiser Bill”), grandson of William I, becomes
Kaiser, leading to a rise in nationalism and neobaroque pomp
as well as aggressive global politics.
1889 Kneipp-Kaffee, a coffee surrogate made from roasted malted
barley, is produced commercially for the first time.
1892 The last German cholera epidemic in Hamburg.
The first German wine law seeks to combat Kunstwein (artifi-
cial wine), but instead achieves the opposite.
early 1890s first canning factory for sausages in Frankfurt am Main
opens.
xxii Timeline
1895–1915 German wines are highly esteemed internationally and
frequently more expensive than those from top Bordeaux
châteaus.
1898 Deutscher LandFrauenverband (German Countrywomen’s So-
ciety) founded in East Prussia.
1901 The term Naturwein (natural wine) is introduced, referring to
a monovarietal wine with natural alcohol content and from a
single vineyard and vintage.
1902 State law for compulsory inspection of all slaughtered pork
for trichinosis is introduced.
1907 German grocery stores form the shopping cooperative Edeka
(today a supermarket chain).
1908 First Maggi soup stock cubes introduced to the public.
1909 Sektsteuer (sparkling wine tax) introduced to finance national
fleet, which is still in place today.
Legal protection of vineyard names is introduced, now tied to
actual geographic locations.
1914 Sterile filtration is developed to supply soldiers with clean
drinking water.

1916 During World War I, food rationing starts with meat, initially
at 0.55 lb. weekly per person.
1916–17 Rübenwinter: very severe cold winter temperatures combined
with insufficient food provisions (due to the failed potato
crop and general unpreparedness for the long war) neces-
sitate that rutabagas (swedes), until then considered cattle
feed, are eaten as a last, scarce resort.
1918 The concept of equal rights is introduced, with women gain-
ing the right to vote as well as eligibility for political office.
However, household work remains their unpaid, legal duty,
and husbands are still seen as providers who rule over any
legal and financial decisions.
1919 Treaty of Versailles is imposed following German defeat in
World War I; the victors demand very high reparation pay-
ments as well as the return of Alsace and Lorraine to France.
1922 Gummibärchen (gummy bears) invented in Bonn.
1923–24 With inflation, a large part of the middle class loses their sav-
ings or becomes impoverished.
1925 Das Reformhaus, a monthly newspaper promoting a healthy life-
style, is first published as part of the Lebensreform movement
Timeline xxiii
that began as a counterreaction to industrialization, advocating
natural food and lifestyle since 1860s.
1926 Frankfurter Küche designed by Viennese architect Margarete
Schütte-Litotzky, commissioned by Frankfurt city council for
new apartments.
1927 First general German food law is enacted.
1928
Die Ernährung nutrition show is in Berlin.
1930 Electricity arrives in German households.

Official legislation accepts technological progress in the form
of sterile filtration for wine, which leads to the production of
Süßreserve (sterile, filtered grape juice used to sweeten wine)
and stopped wine fermentation, resulting in sweet wines;
both methods are legally accepted for Naturwein.
1932 Sterilization method for pickled cucumbers is introduced, en
-
abling industrial-scale production of Spreewald pickles and
shipments over longer distances.
Fifty-two percent of fat used in Germany is imported.
1933 Adolf Hitler is elected chancellor; six months later Germany
becomes a one-party state.
Emigration numbers jump up; about half the Jewish popu-
lation (about a half million in 1933) emigrate by 1939;
including many leading artists, engineers, scientists, and poli-
ticians.
1935 Nazi Hermann Göring is made
Reichsjägermeister (the Reich’s
hunting master).
1936 Germany revives whaling industry in search of self-
sufficiency.
November 9, On Reichskristallnacht (night of the broken glass), the per-
1938 secution of Jews by the Nazi dictatorship enters its savage
phase. Jewish emigration accelerates. During the following
six and a half years, Germany systematically eradicates al-
most all its Jewish population, and with it a vital facet of its
culinary identity.
1939 The invasion of Poland by German troops leads to the begin-
ning of World War II.
Until the German defeat in spring 1945 the civilian popula-

tion is provided with food partly through the raiding of in-
vaded countries.
xxiv Timeline
Ration cards for food and clothing are introduced.
One thousand nine hundred five miles of Autobahn (high-
way) are finished, with 1,149 more under construction.
1945–46 A hunger winter; for the urban population of Germany the
food supply remains erratic until 1949–50.
1946 American CARE parcels sent to Germany.
1947 Black market prices in Berlin: 20 American cigarettes, 150
Reichsmark (RM); 2.2 lb. coffee, 1,100 RM; 1 egg, 12 RM;
1 box of matches, 5 RM.
Seitz of Bad Kreuznach/Nahe launches the first affordable
sterile filter, enabling the Süße Welle, a wave of sweet Ger-
man wine which quickly grows in scale after 1960.
1948 Deutschmark (DM) introduced by Western Allied forces,
1 DM = 1 RM (in 1950 1 DM in West Germany corresponds
to about 5 Mark in East Germany).
The first state-run HO-grocery stores open in East Berlin and
East Germany (in 1950 private stores are down to 52%).
June 1948– Soviet blockade of West Berlin, with city surviving thanks to
May 1949 Luftbrücke (airlift). Food and coal is flown in by so-called Rosi-
nenbomber (literally, raisin bombers), Western Allied planes
land up to every 3 minutes. On the busiest day 896 planes fly
in about 7,716 tons of goods; in total 274,718 flights cover
almost 100 million miles and bring in over 2.2 million tons of
supplies.
May 1949 Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Republic of Germany, or
West Germany) founded.
Onset of Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle), which lasts

until 1967, the first year of zero growth of the gross national
product.
1949 Deutscher Hausfrauen-Bund (German Housewives’ Alliance)
founded.
September 4, This day is commonly believed to be the date of invention of
1949 the Currywurst (curried sausage) by a certain Herta Heuwer
at her food stall on the Kantstrasse in Berlin. However, some
claim Hamburg and an earlier date in 1947 as the starting
point for this highly popular snack.
October 1949 Founding of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (German
Democratic Republic, or East Germany). In East Germany
equal rights for women are part of the constitution from the
start: “Through the Republic’s rights the necessary institutions
Timeline xxv
will be created which guarantee that a woman can reconcile
her tasks as citizen and worker with her duties as woman and
mother” (paragraph 18).
1950 Food rationing and price controls are abolished in West Ger-
many, ending the black market.
1951 A West German worker needs to work 240 minutes to buy
2.2 lb. butter, an American needs to work only 68 minutes.
1952 There are now 200,000 tractors in Germany (in 1949, 75,000)
and 1.36 million horses (in 1950, 1.57 million).
1953 Long-distance water pipes are built from Lake Constance to
Stuttgart to satisfy increasing water needs.
1954 British chain Wimpy introduces West Germans to hamburgers.
1955 First Wienerwald opens in Munich, a fast-growing chain of
take-out food outlets selling grilled chicken. It also doubles as
a family restaurant.
West Germany becomes a member of NATO.

Consumers strike because of rising milk prices.
Levels of unemployment in West Germany reach their lowest
since the war (about 495,000 people are unemployed in West
Germany and 115,900 in West Berlin).
1952 First German pizzeria, Sabbie di Capri, opens in Würzburg.
June 17, 1953 Workers’ revolt in East Berlin is put down by Soviet tanks.
1955 The first Italian guest workers arrive in Germany.
1958 Food journalist Wolfram Siebeck writes his first articles in
the magazine
Twen.
East Germany abolishes food rationing (although it is partly
reintroduced in 1961).
The restructuring of West German food law introduces bans
and requires labeling of additives.
1959 The beginning of the European Common Market.
August 13, East Germany builds the Berlin Wall, sealing off West Berlin.
1961
1963 Milk price increases in West Germany.
Following the example of the United States, the first shop-
ping centers and supermarkets open in West Germany.
1969 West German labor market reaches a record high with only
861,000 vacancies, more than 1.5 million foreign workers,
and 0.5% unemployment.